Re: [DebConf18] Extending job fairs to 3 days (Open Day + 2 days in DebConf)

[shirish शिरीष]

adding in-line :--

On 18/05/2018, Daniel Lange  wrote:
> Am 18.05.2018 um 04:05 schrieb Yao Wei:
>> On Thu, May 17, 2018 at 11:55:47PM +0800, Yao Wei wrote:
>> Also one of the local sponsors asks that if we do something special to
>> job fair, comparing to the sponsor booths of the following days.
>
> Usually we make the job fair explicit in the schedule (so prevent
> lectures to take place at the same time). That way everybody can attend
> and there is a good crowd roaming around the job fair for three or so
> hours. This is good for the attendees (not too explicit who's looking
> for new employment and who's only casually chatting to people) and good
> for the sponsors (good frequency, busy booths).

+ 1

> The sponsor booths on the contrary are just "there" where people pass
> between lectures when changing rooms. They offer an opportunity for a
> company to present their products or give away something to attendees in
> return for interest in their company. We had this in all of the last
> three years and as I said during the meeting yesterday, results are
> mixed. The Luzbot (Aleph Objects) people (booth manned by a community
> member) in South Africa had great frequency for multiple days as the
> produced Debian logos in 3D and people were generally interested in 3D
> printing and their products. The SFL people in Canada had great
> frequency as they have a very good connection to the local community so
> many people came around to chat and they had T-Shirts to give away, too.
> The Purism people (also in Canada) demoed their laptops which made their
> sponsors booth rather full for any time between lectures or around
> lunch. They also agreed deals there with other companies / community
> projects so for them it seems to have been a very successful participation.
>

Can add my experience to the 2016 Luzbot fair in Debconf, may be worthwhile
for sponsors.

One of the reasons I *think* why they were successful was that they were
doing lots of 3-d printing on the spot on small and medium sized rubber-like
flexible polymer material.  The small ones were given as takeaways to
people whoever came to the stall.

The people manning the stall were genuinely interested in sharing
knowledge as to about the different formats, the types of material
they used for printing as well as the others in the industry did and
the time it took (for instance) to make a small ball of debian logo
which could be attached to a chain, sort of design, cost of materials
and some of the shortcomings of the technology as it were.
There was also talk of various repositories where designs are
shared.

https://www.thingiverse.com/

I and probably many tech people had heard the 2015 the first 3d
printed apartments made in china by winsun so I and probably others
might have asked questions about that as well as printing the printer.

https://www.cnet.com/au/news/worlds-first-3d-printed-apartment-building-constructed-in-china/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RepRap_project

Overall, If the sponsors show off their stuff and are passionate about the
technology, are patient and be willing to share and discuss
about what's happening in the world, both sides would probably have
much more productive and enriching experiences.

That would lead to them finding people who would be interested
on the technology itself and may be a far better fit than other ways.

My 2 paise.



>
> Best regards,
> Daniel
>
>

-- 
  Regards,
  Shirish Agarwal  शिरीष अग्रवाल
  My quotes in this email licensed under CC 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/
http://flossexperiences.wordpress.com
EB80 462B 08E1 A0DE A73A  2C2F 9F3D C7A4 E1C4 D2D8

Re: [DebConf18] Extending job fairs to 3 days (Open Day + 2 days in DebConf)

[Daniel Lange]

Am 18.05.2018 um 04:05 schrieb Yao Wei:
> On Thu, May 17, 2018 at 11:55:47PM +0800, Yao Wei wrote:
> Also one of the local sponsors asks that if we do something special to
> job fair, comparing to the sponsor booths of the following days.

Usually we make the job fair explicit in the schedule (so prevent
lectures to take place at the same time). That way everybody can attend
and there is a good crowd roaming around the job fair for three or so
hours. This is good for the attendees (not too explicit who's looking
for new employment and who's only casually chatting to people) and good
for the sponsors (good frequency, busy booths).

The sponsor booths on the contrary are just "there" where people pass
between lectures when changing rooms. They offer an opportunity for a
company to present their products or give away something to attendees in
return for interest in their company. We had this in all of the last
three years and as I said during the meeting yesterday, results are
mixed. The Luzbot (Aleph Objects) people (booth manned by a community
member) in South Africa had great frequency for multiple days as the
produced Debian logos in 3D and people were generally interested in 3D
printing and their products. The SFL people in Canada had great
frequency as they have a very good connection to the local community so
many people came around to chat and they had T-Shirts to give away, too.
The Purism people (also in Canada) demoed their laptops which made their
sponsors booth rather full for any time between lectures or around
lunch. They also agreed deals there with other companies / community
projects so for them it seems to have been a very successful participation.

Now other booths didn't work so well, I won't name these companies but
there have been some (esp. during DC15) which were at some point not
even manned (or womanned) by their own employees anymore because they
got so bored with standing around having nothing to show and nothing to
give out.

So the story here is: For three hours with the common topic of "would we
want to work together" (job fair) and table with a logo and two nice
people works and gets us a positive experience for the attendees and the
sponsors.

A multiple-day sponsors booth needs to have a reason to exist that works
for our attendees or it will be a very boring place and produce a
frustrated (and thus likely not coming back) sponsor. So we should
prevent that from happening.

So if people have a plan to usefully fill days, happily give them a
booth to inform, entertain, feed our attendees for these days. But if
they just want to show their logo and a few product flyers save them the
embarrassment and make it only a booth on open day (in addition to the
job fair time).

Best regards,
Daniel

Re: [DebConf18] Extending job fairs to 3 days (Open Day + 2 days in DebConf)

[Yao Wei]

On Thu, May 17, 2018 at 11:55:47PM +0800, Yao Wei wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> During the meeting this week, we also found out that local team does
> want the sponsor booths available for longer days, instead of longer job
> fairs.
> 
> How many days of the sponsors booths should be available?  And do we
> have enough tables and chairs for the purpose?
> 
> For the meeting log please see:
>   
> http://meetbot.debian.net/debconf-team/2018/debconf-team.2018-05-17-14.29.log.html#l-101
> 
> Yao Wei

Hi,

Also one of the local sponsors asks that if we do something special to
job fair, comparing to the sponsor booths of the following days.

Yao Wei


signature.asc
Description: PGP signature

Re: [DebConf18] Extending job fairs to 3 days (Open Day + 2 days in DebConf)

[Yao Wei]

Hi,

During the meeting this week, we also found out that local team does
want the sponsor booths available for longer days, instead of longer job
fairs.

How many days of the sponsors booths should be available?  And do we
have enough tables and chairs for the purpose?

For the meeting log please see:
  
http://meetbot.debian.net/debconf-team/2018/debconf-team.2018-05-17-14.29.log.html#l-101

Yao Wei


signature.asc
Description: PGP signature

Re: [DebConf18] Extending job fairs to 3 days (Open Day + 2 days in DebConf)

[Yao Wei]

Hi,

In Taiwan we are pretty used to conferences having sponsors booths lasting
for 2 days, and our sponsorship tiers are more expensive than other
conferences in Taiwan. I think that's the reason companies asking why they
aren't paying for longer job fair.

Also Taiwanese conferences tend to hold events like stamps etc. to let
attendees better interact with sponsors.  I think it is not so effective to
our audiences, but just kinda different culture of what our job fair is
doing.

Yao Wei

Re: [DebConf18] Extending job fairs to 3 days (Open Day + 2 days in DebConf)

[Nattie Mayer-Hutchings]

On Fri, May 11, 2018 at 01:10:43AM +0530, shirish शिरीष wrote:

> Correct me if I'm wrong. AFAIK Open Day is the same day where also the
> day trips are also happening. 

You've got it wrong: Open Day is Saturday 28 July, Daytrip Day is Wednesday
1 August.

-Nattie

Re: [DebConf18] Extending job fairs to 3 days (Open Day + 2 days in DebConf)

[shirish शिरीष]

at bottom :-

On 11/05/2018, David Bremner  wrote:
> shirish शिरीष  writes:
>
>> at bottom :-
>>
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Correct me if I'm wrong. AFAIK Open Day is the same day where also the
>> day trips are also happening.
>
> That is incorrect. You can find the correct dates at
>
> https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf18
>
> d
>

Dear David,

Thank you for the correction. Even then the Open Day as being shared
from the wiki could be tricky to navigate if there are more events
happening that day as seen from
https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf18/OpenDay , specifically as many
of the suggestions seem to be pretty interesting if taken on that day.

There is another aspect which I dunno if Yao Wei has talked with NCTU
or not ? From what I could ascertain,  IF it is to be a 2 day fair
than the second day the stall would have to be public place of the
venue,  Apart from Debian attendees, would NCTU have any objections if
the public space is used in that way and how much crowded would the
public place be or not ?

If one looks at the 14 odd companies which can present themselves at
job fair according to
https://debconf18.debconf.org/sponsors/become-a-sponsor/ and  the
number of organizations tiered shown according to
https://debconf18.debconf.org/ then maybe having 2 day fair may be a
good idea.

Also Open Day would be the day that many people would be landing as
well so that also needs to be taken into account. I am open to be
convinced that it is a bad idea but personally don't really see any
harm.  Lunch and tea-breaks could be the best time to interact with
companies as well as evening time . I don't see them interfering with
Debian's time-table at all.

-- 
  Regards,
  Shirish Agarwal  शिरीष अग्रवाल
  My quotes in this email licensed under CC 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/
http://flossexperiences.wordpress.com
EB80 462B 08E1 A0DE A73A  2C2F 9F3D C7A4 E1C4 D2D8

Re: [DebConf18] Extending job fairs to 3 days (Open Day + 2 days in DebConf)

[David Bremner]

shirish शिरीष  writes:

> at bottom :-
>

> Hi,
>
> Correct me if I'm wrong. AFAIK Open Day is the same day where also the
> day trips are also happening.

That is incorrect. You can find the correct dates at

https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf18

d

Re: [DebConf18] Extending job fairs to 3 days (Open Day + 2 days in DebConf)

[shirish शिरीष]

at bottom :-

On 10/05/2018, Yao Wei  wrote:
> Hi,
>
> As previously discussed in global team meeting we are extending job fair
> to 3 days, to increase the companies' willness to sponsor.  Please tell
> the news to the sponsors so they can prepare for longer job fair.
>
> We have a concern, that long job fair may make sponsors "feel bored"
> because attendees already know what they are on the first day, unless
> the sponsors are active enough to keep the momentum going, for example,
> if the companies are already part of the community.
>
> Any idea on this?
>
> Best regards,
> Yao Wei
>

Hi,

Correct me if I'm wrong. AFAIK Open Day is the same day where also the
day trips are also happening. So an attendee if s(he) chooses to be on
a day trip may probably be not on her(is) best after coming from the
day trip OR s(he) has to choose between the two. This is and would
neither be fair for the attendees nor for the companies.

In the minidebconf which was held last month in my city, COEP (the
university) had job fairs for both days and I personally had more
interesting conversations on the second day with the companies as I
had more time to talk to the companies concerned and they were also
more willing to share what they were working on as most fresher-type
queries were asked and answered on day 1.

>From a company's perspective, they could have small 'events' on their
stall with times and all which could either be shared in the welcome
kit or as a flyer or put in on the board so people could attend if
they find something interesting. So the aspect of 'boring' is reduced.
In fact, if companies shares or shows some of their free software
work, it could make for pretty interesting conversations along with
swags, souvenirs etc.

-- 
  Regards,
  Shirish Agarwal  शिरीष अग्रवाल
  My quotes in this email licensed under CC 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/
http://flossexperiences.wordpress.com
EB80 462B 08E1 A0DE A73A  2C2F 9F3D C7A4 E1C4 D2D8

Re: [DebConf18] Extending job fairs to 3 days (Open Day + 2 days in DebConf)

[Jonathan Carter]

On 10/05/2018 18:15, Yao Wei wrote:
> As previously discussed in global team meeting we are extending job fair
> to 3 days, to increase the companies' willness to sponsor.  Please tell
> the news to the sponsors so they can prepare for longer job fair.
> 
> We have a concern, that long job fair may make sponsors "feel bored"
> because attendees already know what they are on the first day, unless
> the sponsors are active enough to keep the momentum going, for example,
> if the companies are already part of the community.

3 days is certainly very long for the job fair. Have you found that
sponsors actually want longer job fairs?

I guess it won't be 3 full days, if it's 3 partial days you could almost
make it a track and give the companies a chance to have a quick talk
about their working environment at some kind of job fair plenary.

Oops, I'll stop talking now before I cause any extra work :)

-Jonathan

-- 
  ⢀⣴⠾⠻⢶⣦⠀  Jonathan Carter (highvoltage) 
  ⣾⠁⢠⠒⠀⣿⡁  Debian Developer - https://wiki.debian.org/highvoltage
  ⢿⡄⠘⠷⠚⠋   https://debian.org | https://jonathancarter.org
  ⠈⠳⣄  Be Bold. Be brave. Debian has got your back.

Re: [DebConf18] Extending job fairs to 3 days (Open Day + 2 days in DebConf)

[Holger Levsen]

On Fri, May 11, 2018 at 12:15:21AM +0800, Yao Wei wrote:
> As previously discussed in global team meeting we are extending job fair
> to 3 days, to increase the companies' willness to sponsor.  Please tell
> the news to the sponsors so they can prepare for longer job fair.
> 
> We have a concern, that long job fair may make sponsors "feel bored"
> because attendees already know what they are on the first day, unless
> the sponsors are active enough to keep the momentum going, for example,
> if the companies are already part of the community.
> 
> Any idea on this?

I'll just say that I dislike the idea of having a 3 day job fair, partly
because it's boring and partly because DebConf is kind of a family
meeting and as such I think one day with job and potential bosses etc is
enough.

(And please take this as I said it: I dislike the idea. I dont object, etc...)


-- 
cheers,
Holger


signature.asc
Description: PGP signature